Has there ever been a moment in your expeditions where you've thought, "This is it, I'm going to die?"
There's always the possibility. The risk is that I'm very remote a lot of the time. During the 60-day challenge I did on the island in the series Marooned, I had no contact with anyone apart from when they came in with medicine because I was ill. That was extraordinary.
The last time I thought I was going to die was the beginning of last year when I joined my wife in Ecuador. She was doing a challenge to cycle across South America and at one point I decided to join her. I was cycling and got hit by a juggernaut, and I remember being absolutely smashed in the back and all the wind being knocked out of me. I was just thinking, "If I'm unlucky, I'm going straight into the back wheels of this juggernaut and if that's it, then I'm dead."
I've been to Afghanistan and done all sorts of bonkers things. In Ecuador, I just remember the cliche of life flashing before your eyes, as I tumbled away from the lorry, luckily not under the wheels.
Is your survival knowledge influenced by your a military background?
It was a key part of everything. I'm pleased I did all the stages on the path to what I'm doing now. I loved scouts and then I went into the Royal Marine Combined Cadet Force, then reached Captain in the regular army as part of the Devon and Dorset regiment. It's certainly something that enabled me to go through some pretty hard exercises and a 6-month operation in Northern Ireland. It certainly taught me a lot.
Did you find that influenced the challenges and expeditions you went on to complete?
It set me up with having the confidence to do something like walking the Amazon. During the Amazon walk, I had to take my military hat off in many respects. I had to drop the brutality of timings being kept to. In South America, you can't have that sort of attitude. It was a great springboard and it's something that I'll always value, but in terms of the actual survival lessons and skills, most of that comes from time with indigenous people.
Although walking the Amazon was a sort of transitory walk and I wasn't staying in villages, there was only one day of the whole expedition where I didn't walk with somebody else. All those people have different knowledge about the forest, fishing and more. Now, most of my knowledge has come through indigenous people and local people of the area, which could be colonial settlers and people in the area who are far more knowledgeable than I am.
I'm the lucky person who gets flown around the world and can gleam all of this information off of local people. Hopefully I remember some of it and then use it on my trips.